Tim Wu: Four tech policies for a new president

It's easy to get mad at the government, less easy to suggest workable solutions for fixing its problems. Tim Wu, a Columbia law professor and a sometime advisor to the Obama campaign, has taken his own shot at fixing US tech policy in a new Slate article... and he also takes a few shots at the Bush administration's own approach. According to Wu, the next US president needs a broadband czar, an FCC "dream team," better international tech policy, and new tools for transparent government. What it needs less of is Bush's policy of "benign neglect."

Broadband

The broadband czar option is perhaps the simplest to understand. Wu wants a federal official whose sole job is getting the US back on top in the broadband rankings. While numerous US states are at the top of the worldwide heap, the country as a whole is being outclassed by countries like France, Japan, and South Korea.

What would the broadband czar do? Wu doesn't offer specific policy prescriptions, preferring instead to leave those up to whoever wears the czarist crown. At least this way, we would have an obvious target for beheading should the broadband improvement plan go bust. In any event, it wouldn't seem difficult to improve on not having a plan, which appears to be the current plan.

FCC

Point number two: fix the FCC. We already know that the Commission has problems; Wu's fix is to appoint technocrats, not those with the most experience as Senate committee staffers. (But don't diss the staffers completely, we say; many of them do the heavy intellectual lifting in Congress, and people like Google copyright lawyer William Patry put in quality time on the Hill.)

According to Wu, the current approach is much like "choosing from among Nike's lawyers to find coaches for the US Olympic team." He also points out the current "revolving door" in Washington, where staffers and even commissioners at places like the FCC inevitably end up in a high-paying lobbying or government relations job after leaving office.

For instance, the boss of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, John Kneuer, left his post in December and immediately took a job in external affairs with Rivada Networks. Without limitations of this sort of thing, it can be easy for federal workers to avoid objections or complaint, since they might soon be lobbying their current bosses.

International tech policy

Up next, Wu wants to appoint fresh blood to the parts of the federal government that handle the international aspect of our technology policy, specifically the Office of the US Trade Representative. Not only has the USTR in recent years lobbied heavily against software piracy and even AllOfMP3.com, but the office also plays a significant role in enforcing US patent protections on key lifesaving drugs.

Transparency

Finally, knowing that sunlight is the best disinfectant, Wu's fourth plank is "the technology of transparent government.

"Bush leaves behind a transparency tradition somewhere between Brezhnev and Dracula," writes Wu. He suggests the creation of a "good search engine or wiki" to make finding federal information easier, and he suggests that the next administration do all it can to make government operations more transparent. (One thinks immediately of similar, outside initiatives designed to leverage Web technology to keep politics open, projects like Lawrence Lessig's new Change Congress site.)

Longer-term, both immigration and patents need more work, in Wu's view, but the four changes he suggests sound like a decent place to start. Your thoughts on what needs to change?